Back from the Brink
by Justin BlundellPublished November 2006"A fascinating account of the clubs austerity years"CLIFF BUTLER, OFFICIAL CLUB HISTORIAN

"A gripping
read, thanks to the author's meticulous research and keen eye for anecdotes
and bizarre facts.A finely crafted, insightful
piece of club history"Jon Spurling, FourFourTwo
- Book of the month - Jan 2007 - Full
Review

IN
THE RICH HISTORY OF MANCHESTER UNITED THERE HAVE BEEN SEVERAL GREAT CRISES
- BACK FROM THE BRINK TELLS THE STORY OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT OF THEM
ALL...
In this amusing, irreverent and fascinating account, Justin Blundell traces
the events of the club's lost youth between the end of the Great War and
the worldwide economic crisis that almost scuppered the club yet ushered
in a new era under James Gibson.
Along the way, we re-visit some of the most important events in the club's
history; the extraordinary boycott attempt of 1930, the incident on the
Moors that almost wiped out an entire team and the birth of the youth
policy that paved the way for the Busby Babes and the glorious post-war
period.
Featuring over 120 player profiles, from greats such as Billy Meredith,
Frank Barson and Joe Spence to the one-game cloggers who lit up Old Trafford
afternoons with their endeavour, courage or lack of ability. Blundell's
punchy account deserves to stand alongside the many volumes written about
the post-war glory years - it tells the story of how United survived the
Depression Years and came back from the brink. More...

The Insider's Guide to Manchester
United:
Candid Profiles of Every Red Devil Since 1945
by John Dohertywith Ivan Ponting

CONTAINING
JOHN DOHERTY'S SUBJECTIVE views on each of the 348 men to the end of
season 2004-05 who have played for the club at senior level since the
war, The Insider's Guide To Manchester United is the definitive Manchester
United players' guide. Documenting every player to have appeared for
the Red Devils since the war, Doherty (an original Busby Babe and chairman
of the United Old Boys committee) candidly reveals the strengths, weaknesses
and his personal memories of United's finest. More...

SOLD OUT!

The Birth of the Babes
Manchester United Youth Policy 1950-57
by Tony WhelanForeword by Sir Alex FergusonPreface by Cliff
Butler

The emergence
in the 1950s of talented footballers such as Duncan Edwards and Bobby
Charlton was a result of the first truly comprehensive scouting and coaching
operation English football had known. As a player Matt Busby had learned
through bitter experience of the 'sink or swim' approach that prevailed
at most football clubs and realised that the harnessing of the full talents
of footballers required a more involved approach. If a player had a gambling
or drinking problem for instance, this would affect his performance on
a Saturday and would therefore become the club's problem. More...

£16.95 - Hardback - ISBN
1901746496

This Simple Game -
The Footballing Life of Ken BarnesAs Told to Jimmy WaggPublished December 2005

Ken
Barnes was widely regarded as one of the finest footballers of his generation
never to have won an England cap. During a distinguished playing career
with Manchester City, Ken appeared in the FA Cup finals of 1955 and 1956
and later captained the club before retiring in the early 60s. He spent
nearly a decade away from Maine Road as a manager of Wrexham and Witton
Albion before returning to Maine Road as a coach under Joe Mercer. Ken
subsequently went on to serve under every City manager as either a coach
or chief scout from Joe Mercer to Joe Royle. In his time Ken has seen
tactical trends come and go - from the deep lying centre-forward
via wingless wonders to todays holding midfielder
and is uniquely placed to give his opinions on them all. More...

One
of the most perceptive descriptions of Manchester Citys play during
their glory years was made by Manchester Evening News reporter Peter
Gardner who said that When Youngy plays, City play. For
all the talk in the intervening years of greats such as Summerbee, Bell
and Lee, it was the local lad made good who made most impact when it
mattered.

A tall, leggy
striker with a venomous left-foot shot, Young scored in every significant
game for City in the late 60s. Scorer of two goals in the 1968 Championship
win up at Newcastle, the scorer of the 1969 FA Cup Final winner and
the first goal in the 1970 Cup Winners Cup final, Neil Young played
as significant a role in the success and style of the Mercer-Allison
partnership as anyone. Yet by 1972 he was allowed to leave the club
as City began their now familiar relationship with underachievement
and mismanagement.

In Catch
a Falling Star, Neil Young explains what he has been up to in
the years since his sizzling shots stung the hands of the countrys
finest goalkeepers. Following his premature exit from Maine Road. Here
he frankly discusses the problem that faced footballers of the pre-Premiership
era: When I left Rochdale for the last time one Friday afternoon
I had a weeks wages... about £60. I drove home and sat in
my lounge for about two hours, wondering what the hell I was going to
do. I had a car on HP, a mortgage, a wife and three children to feed.
I was the provider who could no longer provide. I had no savings whatsoever
and my wife didnt work. I didnt see it coming. It was a
calamity waiting to happen.

Thus starts
Neils decline into illness and depression. During the next painful
decade Neil suffered numerous illnesses, lost his family, his mother
and survived a suicide attempt. Thankfully, he has emerged with his
spirit intact thanks largely to the love of his third wife, Carmen.
Catch a Falling Star is the moving tale of a how a star
on the wane managed to mount a personal comeback as impressive as any
achieved on the pitch by City's star-studded squad of the late 60s.

‘A
quirky look at the world of the quizmaster... excellent example questions.’JANE HADEN, FREEQUIZZES, WWW.FREEQUIZZES.CO.UK

‘Excellent advice on the way it should be done. If only all quizmasters
read this first.’TOM ROSS, PUB QUIZ DIRECTORY, WWW.PUBQUIZDIRECTORY.COM

In
Quiz Setting Made Easy,
John Dawson explores the very essence of human existence. In his case
the answer to the ancient philosophical conundrum ‘What sets humans apart
from the animal kingdom?’ is straightforward. It is not the ability to
form tools, communicate or feel empathy with our fellow planet dwellers
but our desire to acquire (and retain) as much trivia as possible. In
brief, this is his explanation for modern Britain’s obsession with the
pub quiz and the consequent growth in the number of question and answer
books, many of which have been published under the misapprehension that
all a budding quiz setter needs to succeed is a large enough selection
of questions that can be adapted according to circumstance.

Yet,
as Quiz Setting Made Easy makes clear, there are many pitfalls for the
budding Magnus Magnusson, not least the murmurs of complaint from contestants
attempting to answer vaguelyworded and poorly researched questions. Then
there are the potential disasters and the nagging doubts that bring the
quiz setter out in a cold sweat in the middle of the night: Does the venue
have a PA system? How do I make sure people turn up? What happens in the
event of a tie? Who marks the questions, them or me?

Written
in light-hearted vein, Quiz Setting Made Easy is designed to soothe the
quiz setter’s brow and bring back the fun to what is, after all, a leisure-time
pursuit. In addition to his expert advice on the dos and don’ts of quiz
setting, John illustrates the style and expertise required of the fully
fledged question-master. With 72 rounds containing over 1,100 expertly
worded questions, John Dawson makes enough suggestions for alternative
topics, interval rounds, tie-breakers and music rounds to keep a quiz-setter
going for years. His ideas could also be adapted for use in the classroom,
during wet weekends in Cleethorpes or the 90 degrees heat of an M6 traffic
jam... in fact anywhere humans pursue the trivial.

About the
Author

John
Dawson was born and brought up in Liverpool. He taught for some
years in Oxford after attending university there, though he dedicated
far more time to folk music and bar billiards than to anything academic.
An itchy brain took him to Kenya, Egypt, and back to Kenya, where he earns
a multifarious living as an editor, writer, and photographer. He is the
co-author of the wildlife book Africa Alive.